. >> susie: good evening, everyone, and thanks for joining us for this labor day special edition. the jobs picture just keeps getting worse. tom, back in january, the economy was adding jobs and the recovery was gaining momentum. then europe's debt woes exploded and the global recovery came to a grinding halt. >> tom: susie, the latest employment numbers aren't much help. 54,000 jobs disappeared from u.s. payrolls in august, and the unemployment rate hit 9.6 >> susie: so how bad is the employment picture, and how long will it take to get back to where we were before the recession started? suzanne pratt puts it in perspective. >> reporter: it seems lately that signs like these are extremely hard to come by. even though the great recession may technically be over, the labor market is far from recovered. the nation's unemployment rate hit 10% late last year and has hovered just below there ever since. but economist dan greenhaus says that widely quoted number understates the magnitude of the job crisis and the inequalities within it. >> if you're an advanced degree white guy working